Carbon aerogels are conducting materials with highly tunable properties. Pore sizes and density of the polymer aerogel can be controlled with the right choice of reactants, catalyst, and curing conditions. Often, it is desirable to further modify the aerogel after it has been carbonized to change the porosity or surface qualities further and tune the material to a specific application. For example, one field of use of carbon aerogels is as capacitive material in supercapacitors or capacitive deionization. For this application, it is desirable for the material to be hydrophilic, although carbon aerogels after pyrolysis are often hydrophobic. Previous post-treatment procedures usually involve a high-temperature etch with carbon dioxide. This etch increases hydrophilicity and porosity of the material, but requires high temperature (950° C.) and produces a toxic gas, carbon monoxide. A further drawback is that, under regular etching conditions, there is no natural stop of the reaction, and the reaction time has to be controlled closely. These drawbacks increase the difficulty and cost of desirable post-processing.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved method for increasing hydrophilicity and porosity of carbon aerogels that is easier to implement and more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than established post-treatment methods.